So-called manual medicine dispensing devices (individual medicine distributing devices) incorporated in a medicine dispensing apparatus have been put into practical use (see Patent Documents 1 and 2, for example). In the manual medicine dispensing device, a spare dispensing cassette (spare individual distributing cassette) is provided to be drawable from a housing of the medicine dispensing apparatus. A large number of small sectioned chambers (cells) are formed in the spare dispensing cassette to be arranged in columns and rows. The cells each have an opened top to allow input of medicines. The lower surface or bottom wall of the cells is formed from an openable bottom plate, such as a shutter, to discharge medicines. In the manual medicine dispensing device (individual medicine distributing device) according to the related art, medicines are manually input and automatically discharged. Thus, in the housing of the medicine dispensing apparatus, a transporting device (conveyor) is provided under the spare dispensing cassette which has been pushed in. The transporting device has cells corresponding to the cells of the spare dispensing cassette, receives medicines discharged from the cells of the spare dispensing cassette in the cells of the transporting device, and feeds a packing device with the medicines in an amount corresponding to one cell of the spare dispensing cassette at a time. In order to allow the medicines in the cells of the spare dispensing cassette to be collectively transported to the corresponding cells of the transporting device, the bottom plates of the cells in the spare dispensing cassette are configured to be collectively opened and closed for all the cells in the spare dispensing cassettes in response to an operation of a shutter lever, for example. The spare dispensing cassette is not provided with a drive source such as a motor.
Such manual medicine dispensing devices are further configured to indicate the number of cells and the names of the medicines (medicine names). The indication of the number of cells (see Patent Document 1, for example) is intended to reduce the mental burden on an operator who is expected not to mistake the number of packages to be manually dispensed. The number of cells to be used is indicated to the operator in charge of manual dispensation by indicating the number of cells through a two-digit LED, indicating the number of column cells and the number of row cells, or indicating the position of the cell by light emission from one of LEDs disposed for the cells, respectively, or by light emission from LEDs disposed around the cell. In addition to the indication of the number of cells, an indication for double dispensation is also provided. The indication of the medicine names (see Patent Document 2, for example) is printed by a printer along with the reference number of a prescription for manual dispensation.
In the manual medicine dispensing devices according to Patent Documents 1 and 2, all the components are incorporated in the medicine dispensing apparatus. Thus, it is only possible to have the medicines individually distributed beforehand to the cells through manual dispensation for the next dispensation at most, and there inevitably occurs a waiting time for subsequent dispensations. Thus, in order to have the medicines distributed to a spare cassette for a number of subsequent dispensations, there also have been developed several manual medicine dispensing devices (medicine distributing systems) provided separately from the medicine dispensing apparatus (see Patent Documents 3 and 4, for example). In the medicine distributing systems according to Patent Documents 3 and 4, a spare dispensing cassette provided in the manual medicine dispensing device incorporated in the medicine dispensing apparatus and formed with a large number of cells is drawn out toward the front of the medicine dispensing apparatus, and further removed from the manual medicine dispensing device to be used. Thus, the medicine distributing system includes the manual medicine dispensing device, a frame member, and a manual dispensing portion. The frame member is provided separately from the manual medicine dispensing device. The manual dispensing portion is provided to the frame member. The manual dispensing portion includes a large number of input ports formed through the manual dispensing portion and disposed in an arrangement corresponding to the arrangement of the cells of the spare dispensing cassette. A variety of improvements have been made to indicate input ports in a manual dispensation range by means of illumination (see Patent Document 3, for example), and to appropriately limit the range in which medicines put into input ports fall into a spare dispensing cassette through individual opening—closing members (see Patent Document 4, for example).